By Bob Decker
In my last blog post, What Editors Really Want: Getting Your Technical Articles Published, I shared what decision makers at trade publications look for and what guidelines to follow to have the best chances of getting published.
But at some point, you may have stalled out on this thought: “I get why contributed articles matter, but what would I even write about?”
If that’s where you are, you’re not stuck. You’re looking in the wrong place.
Because in the sensors and semiconductor industry, the best article ideas aren’t invented from scratch. They’re already sitting inside your company in conversations, documents, and day-to-day problem solving.
The key is knowing where to look and how to recognize a strong idea when you see one. Let’s walk through 5 of the most reliable sources that your customers want to read and publishers want to print.
1. Start with real engineering problems.
The strongest contributed articles almost always begin with real-world design challenges.
Think about the questions your customers are asking:
● “How do I manage thermal issues in a smaller footprint?”
● “Why is my signal degrading at higher speeds?”
● “What’s the best way to ensure reliability in harsh environments?”
These aren’t just support questions. They’re article ideas.
If one engineer has asked, many others are dealing with the same issue. And trade publications exist to help solve exactly those kinds of problems. A simple way to pressure-test an idea is: Would an engineer search for this? If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track.
2. Mine the content you’ve already created.
You likely don’t need to start from a completely blank page. Many contributed articles begin as something else:
● An application note
● A white paper
● A webinar or conference presentation
● Internal training materials
● Even a detailed email explanation
Contributed articles can stem from reshaping existing knowledge for a broader audience. For example, a dense white paper can often become a more accessible article by focusing on one specific problem and simplifying the explanation. A webinar can turn into an article by extracting the key teaching points and removing the presentation format.
If your engineers have already taken the time to explain something well, you’re closer than you think to having an article ready to publish.
3. Look at what your sales and applications teams hear every day.
Your sales pros and applications engineers are on the front lines. They hear objections, confusion, and edge cases that make them your best source of article ideas.
Pay attention to:
● Questions that come up repeatedly
● Misconceptions about how something works
● Situations where customers don’t know there’s a solution to a common problem
● Conversations that require a deeper explanation
Those moments often translate directly into strong tutorial-style articles. If your team has to explain something more than once, it’s probably worth writing down.
4. Pay attention to industry trends (and add your perspective).
Not every article has to be instructional. Some of the most engaging contributed articles offer a point of view or thought leadership that will add to your company’s credibility and authority.
Look at what’s changing in your space. Are there new standards or technologies? Has there been a shift in design priorities? How about supply chain challenges? What is the impact of AI on engineering workflows? Are there evolving expectations for performance or reliability?
Within those shifts, what are you seeing that others might not? And what have you learned from working with your customers that could be shared with the broader industry? You don’t need a groundbreaking opinion. You just need an informed one that’s based on real-world experience.
5. Use the “problem → why it matters → how to approach it” framework.
If you’re unsure whether an idea or existing content will work as a contributed article, run it through a simple structure:
● Problem: What challenge is the engineer facing?
● Why it matters: What happens if it’s not solved?
● Approach: What are the practical ways to address it?
If you can clearly answer those 3 questions, you likely have a strong article. This framework also helps you avoid one of the biggest pitfalls: drifting into promotion. When you stay focused on the problem and the solution, the article naturally remains helpful and editorial.
That’s where contributed articles start to work the way they’re supposed to: building authority, strengthening your reputation, and helping your expertise reach a wider audience.
You likely already have more article ideas than you think.
At Redpines, we help you uncover those ideas, shape them into strong technical stories, and place them with the editors who are actively looking for this kind of content. Because we’ve built long-standing relationships across the core technology trade press, we know what works and how to get it published.
If you’d like to talk through a few article ideas, give me a call at 415-409-0233.